Thank you for selecting the Crete Colors, C2™ System.  We feel that your expectations for a sustainable floor will be met with our system.  However, the key to the sustainability of Finished Concrete Floors relies on housekeeping executed by your staff.  This will require a process change from your normal maintenance.  There is nothing, which we know of in this world, which is maintenance free.  To maintain anything to standards requires maintenance.  Finished Concrete Floors are no exception.  However, if maintained properly will result in lower maintenance costs than most other floor finishes.  A number of factors effect floor finish performance.  Housekeeping “Best Practices” are discussed in this document.  However the important key is understanding what effects you floor finish along with a good housekeeping schedule, removal of all spills and involvement of your Crete Colors Applicator and Distributor to assist you in managing the floor maintenance. 

Thanks again for selecting the Crete Colors, C2™ System.

Understanding Your Floor And What's Important

Finished Concrete Floors contain reactive sites where calcium hydroxide has been exposed even after the initial finishing.  Calcium hydroxide is produced during the concrete hydration process and migrates to the surface of the slab throughout its life.  The calcium hydroxide, if not treated, reacts with carbon dioxide to chemically form calcium carbonate, dust, even after densifying and finishing the floor.  New sites are exposed through abrasion normal foot traffic from rocks embedded in shoes, scraping, dropping hard materials, scratching, etc. on the finished concrete floor surface.  These new reactive sites need to be treated.  Concrete throughout its life has a pH range of 10 – 12.  Most cleaners on the market are considered neutral, which means they are in the 6-8 pH range.  This is considered acidic when the surface has a higher pH range.  We recommend a cleaner that includes silicates to react with those sites. C² Maintenance™ was developed with a lithium silicate along with neutral pH of 10 to address both situations.

Visually, you cannot see what is happening on the floor.  Concrete floors provide numerous advantages, but to maximize the benefit an understanding of the substrate and what it takes is the best way to start.  First of all, when a finished concrete surface was decided to be used it provided an immediate savings over the use of floor coverings, not only from a installed cost perspective, but environmental value. 

First you need to understand concrete is a reactive material.  It has a pH of 10 – 12.  Normal cleaning materials are closer to neutral.  Applying a lower pH material will chemically affect the surface and appearance.  Even after the initial application of liquid hardeners and protective coatings, the concrete remains reactive. 

The reactive sites begin with concrete hydration and generate calcium hydroxide, which is a reactive material.  Liquid hardeners react with the calcium hydroxide to make calcium silicate hydrate that is the hard part of concrete.  Calcium hydroxide is a very reactive material and if you don’t treat it with liquid hardener then it will react with carbon dioxide and produce calcium carbonate, or dust.

The polishing process provides a series of scratches to the surface in ascending order of fineness till the remaining pattern is uniform and invisible to the naked eye.  This is much like sanding wood.  You use progressively finer sand paper to make it smoother.   

When someone introduces new scratches to the floor a reactive site of calcium hydroxide is revealed and makes the surface appear dull.  The “shine” produced by polishing is valued as spectral gloss.  Introducing new scratches that are not polished changes the refraction of light and appears as dullness.  The C² Maintenance™ was developed with a lithium silicate that reacts with those exposed sites converting them to calcium silicate hydrate and sealing the site. The protective sealer C² Seal™ creates a microfilm on the concrete surface.  It is breathable and will allow water to pass both ways through it. 

However, standing water should not be allowed for the first 72 hours after installation.  If water does stand you need to remove it from the surface immediately.  You will see a dark wet spot under the sealer.  If it should appear white other action will be required.  Otherwise, in 30 minutes to an hour it should disappear.  

Other liquids will not penetrate the sealer because of their molecular size.  However, if they are left to sit on the surface for some time they may penetrate and will require corrective action.  We recommend during the first 2 weeks of operation, surface is cleaned every day with autoscrubber using C² Maintenance™ diluted solution of 120 ml : 10 L of water.  If whiting does appear, contact your applicator that will need to burnish the floor.

 

What Will Affect The Floor?

As we described concrete floor is a reactive surface.  Acidic fluids; pickle juice, vinegar, milk, fruit juices, soft drinks, etc.; oils; olive oil, grease, vegetable oil, etc.; water; mineral deposits, spotting, etc.; deicers, rocks from parking lot via shoes or wheels on carts or tires, etc.  These substances do present problems, but mostly can be mitigated by good housekeeping procedures.

Process Change

The maintenance of “Finished Concrete Floors” requires a paradigm change.  This is not only in perception, but procedures.  As we explained above, the floor is now a reactive surface.  Therefore, the menial housekeeping duties like dusting and walking the floor can provide lower cost maintenance by reducing the need for more extensive work to keep the floor up to standard.   All employees need to be aware of this situation and be observant to conditions that can affect the floor surface.  A number of the changes suggested in this document are proactive approaches to reduce potential contamination to the surface.

Tasks

Tasks are defined as housekeeping that are required to be done on a floor.  They can vary depending on the needs and objectives of the owners.  Remember, the objective is to keep the floor as clean as possible to prevent the more expensive work of burnishing and spiff coating.  The frequencies shown are guidelines based on industry standards.

 

Task Frequency Examples by Building Type
Task	Building Type Frequency by Task
	General	School	Grocery	Retail	Warehouse	Office	Hospital	Specialty   Retail
Dust High Traffic Floors	260	260	720	312	52	260	365	365
Dust Low Traffic Floors	130	260	365	104	26	156	260	365
Auto Scrub Floor with C2 Maintenance™	365	156	365	104	4	52	365	52
Wet mop with C2 Maintenance™ and Rinse Floors	365	260	365	104		52	365	52
Burnish Floor	52	26	26	12	4	4	52	4
Spiff Coat Floor and Burnish	4	4	4	2	1	1	4	1
Wet Mopping and Rinsing	260	52	260	52	12	52	365	104

 

 Frequency of Cleaning Process

The chart below indicates frequencies by various time periods.

Frequency Table Examples
Time Period	Frequency
Days per Year	365
Week Days	260
4 times per week	208
3 times per week	156
2 times per week	104
1 time per week	52
3 times per month	36
1 time every 2 weeks	26
1 times a month	12
4 times per year (quarterly)	4
3 times per year (semi-annual)	2

 

Evaluating the Sales Floor and Creating Cleaning Zones

 

Not all floors experience the same exposure.  Traffic patterns in different areas of the building will lead to different exposure rates.  Some areas will require a higher degree of housekeeping, cleaning and certain times of the year because of climate conditions of your location can affect the cleaning cycle.  We recommend that to meet owner’s expectations, not only on maintenance cost, but specifically surface luster levels the floor should be broken into cleaning zones to treat areas impacted differently.  Obviously the entry/exit and multi-purpose areas need attention daily, but other areas will not require the same degree of attention.  Finding a method to analysis the facility will go a long way in managing costs.

Frequency of Housekeeping – The activity in each cleaning zone will dictate the frequency of housekeeping procedures.  The goal is to keep contaminants that will affect the surface off.  Frequent dusting and supervisor inspections will aid a great deal in keeping the floor up to the expected standards.  We recommend supervisors walk the area several times a day observing issues and directing personnel to take action.  Again, dusting several times a day insures removal of slip hazards from dirt and debris that may accumulate on the surface.

Establishing Benchmarks – Creating quantitative standards for evaluation is one way of taking the subjective observations out of the equation.  Funds have been expensed for installation.  The floor needs to be maintained at those standards.  That does not mean that you shouldn’t listen to those comments, but rely on the quantitative standards as the benchmarks.  Gloss readings are the relevant to maintenance standards.  The luster or gloss is the first indicator that the floor is not clean.  Using a simple gloss meter will provide a way to evaluate the floor.

Types of Quantitative Testing:

< >Specular Gloss Readings:        This testing should be done in the same manner from the first establishment through the maintenance evaluation.  We recommend a floor plan be used to establish where tests are being taken.  Areas of testing need to be determined by where you establish cleaning zones.  We also suggest a series of tests; 10 should be taken in each area.  The number is easily divisible to develop an average.  We would not recommend that you take an average for the entire facility, as this may be misleading.

Recommended Equipment:

Specular Gloss:    Horiba IG-331 Gloss Checker. We recommend the 60° meter for specular gloss

Hardness Tests: Mohs Hardness Pencils Pick Set

Observations:      These need to be recorded at turnover and then logged with the name of the observer to insure consistency.  What is viewed by one person may not be the same for others. Spill Kit – readily accessible to persons in workspace and labeled with instructions.

 

< >Clean mops and mop heads

Pre-diluted solution of C² Maintenance™

Pre-diluted C² Clean™

1 mop bucket

Paper towels, rags or other absorbent material.  

Trash bags

Gloves

Dust pan

Hand broom Grease and Oil Cleaning – C² Clean™ and C² Remove™ are used for removal of all types of oils and grease.  Cleaner/ Degreaser is used initially to remove contaminants from large areas and then Oil and Grease Remover is used on the concentrated area that has been isolated.

 

< >C² Clean™ may be used in as a concentrate or diluted as stated on the Product Data Sheet.  If using this over C² Seal™ we recommend a diluted solution of 1:10 water.

Apply either by spray and then auto-scrub or mop using limited water and then mop clean with diluted C² Maintenance™.  Use the heavy strength dilution.

On bad oil spill spots pour C² Stain Clean™ directly from container.  Do not dilute.  Allow to sit uncovered for 24 hours until completely liquid is completely dry to a powder and then sweep up.  If stain persists, repeat application.  Deep stains require multiple applications. Surface Cleaning - C² Maintenance™ is used for wet cleaning surfaces.  This product is a concentrate and to be used after dilution. C² Maintenance™ contains lithium which reacts with calcium hydroxide generated from hydration and exposure to new reactive sites created through abrasion on the Finished Concrete Floor Surface.

 

ü Seven day per week, a maximum of 5 days per week use the following dilution:

< >C² Maintenance™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water ü The other two days of the week use a dilution:

C² Maintenance™ diluted 240 ml : 10 L of fresh water ü Once or twice a week use the following dilution:

C² Maintenance™ diluted 240 ml : 10 L of fresh water ü For heavy soiled areas that may occur use a dilution:

C² Maintenance™ diluted 480 ml : 10 L of fresh water  Surface Burnishing – The situation may arise where the surface begins to lose its luster.  In those instances the burnishing of the floor will help restore the luster.  Burnishing requires the use of a high-speed propane burnisher that generates in the neighborhood of 3,000 rpm.  This used with a pad will rejuvenate the luster.  The frequency of this action will be determined by the loss of luster that is determined by the “benchmarks” established and visual observations.  In some cases an open house or building inspection by dignitaries may necessitate the additional effort for this type of action. Equipment – There are a number of machines on the market, but we have found that propane generating 3,000 rpm will work the best.  In some cases electric machines may be used, but they will require more time across the floor to achieve the same aesthetic.  Luster is achieved by machine head speed, weight at the head, speed of walking across the surface and method of walking and the pad.  We recommend the C² Heat™, high performance pad for this application.  Other pads with abrasives are available, but the abrasion will wear off the finish.

 

 Spiff Coating – Again, this falls back to evaluating the “benchmarks.”  We would anticipate that this is not needed more than quarterly, if that.  One advantage of C² Seal™ is that you are not required to do the entire floor.  Burnishing the entire floor and addressing those areas where the “benchmarks” are compromised can be done.  Apply the spiff coat and then burnish the entire floor.  The luster will blend in to be the same. Apply one very thin coat of C² Seal™ at a coverage rate of 50-60 m2/L.  Use a pump-up sprayer with adjustable nozzle to control the coverage rate.  Pre-wet microfiber applicator with C² Seal™ and then spray out light mist on floor.  Use microfiber applicator to spread.  Thinner is better.  Work from break point to break point and always to a wet edge.  For large areas, more than one person should be involved.  If doing a middle of space, work in control joint sections.  Allow to dry, approximately 15 – 20 minutes depending on temperature and humidity.  Then run burnisher and pad.  When burnishing the spiff coat use an infrared thermometer to check the surface temperature behind the burnisher.  A temperature of ~33°C (92° F) is required to reach the GFT (Glass Film Temperature) of the material for the initial set.  A quick test is to wait until the surface temperature has returned to normal and pour a small pool of water on the surface.  Allow to sit for 15 minutes, and then wipe up.  The surface should appear to have a wet spot.  Check in 30 minutes to see that it dries clear.  If surface whites out then spiff coat was applied too thick or burnishing did not reach the desired temperature.  After application of the spiff coat, keep water from pooling on surface for 72 hours for cure.  Temperature and humidity affect the cure time.  Cooler damp temperature can extend the cure time weeks.  You can auto-scrub, but cannot let water trails sit on surface.

 

 Daily Cleaning – This needs to be a step-by-step program explaining dusting, sweeping, how to treat the floor etc. and needs to be tied to the Cleaning Zones.

 

Note: the following pages can be used to post for personnel.

Spill Mitigation

Review Spill Kit, Spill Centers and what is to be done for different kind of spills. i.e., wine, citrus, condiments, milk, water, oil, etc.  This would involve notifying Nightly Cleaning Crew so additional work can be done to clean and make sure the spill does not etch the floor. Spill Kit(s) (More than one spill kit should be considered to allow easy access)

< >Clean microfiber mop heads

1 mop bucket

Paper towels or other absorbent material

Microfiber applicator and pad

Trash bags

Gloves

Dust pan

Hand broom

C² Maintenance™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water

C² Clean™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water

Immediate Action √ Absorb & Remove Spill Contents √ Oil Based – olive, cooking, etc.

 

< >After spill removed wipe surface with C² Clean™ diluted 120 ml : 10L of fresh water

Dry surface

Spray C² Maintenance™ solution and mop with microfiber

Dry surface √ Water based – citric & lactic acid, wine, condiments in vinegar, etc.

 

< >Pick up spill with paper towel or other absorbent

Spray diluted C² Maintenance™ solution on spill area and mop with microfiber

Dry surface

Log Spill for Night Crew

Clean Mops, Buckets and Other Equipment

___/ Day - Sweep floor at entry area floor around Walk-Off Mat

___/ Day – Dust Mop; Cleaning Zones ___________________

___/ Day – Dust Mop Entire Facility

Report spills in Spill log detailing location and date which to be maintained at cleaning station.

Clean Spills  Advise Evening Cleaning Crew as to spill location

 

 Maximum time spill allowed on floor 30 minutes

 4x/Day – Manager(s) to survey hot areas; condiment, milk, spirits, etc, aisle for spills

< >Auto-scrub facility (may be done more than 1x/ day or only in areas with a high propensity for spills.  Each facility needs to evaluate their needs)

__days per week 1x/ Day – C² Maintenance™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water

__days per week 1x/ Day – C² Maintenance™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water v Wet Mop facility (may be done more than 1x/ day or only in areas with a high propensity for spills.  Each facility needs to evaluate their needs)

 

< >__days per week 1x/ Day – C² Maintenance™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water

__days per week 1x/ Day – C² Maintenance™ diluted 120 ml : 10 L of fresh water